Releasing Stress and Tension in Savasana

I grind my teeth at night and have apparently been doing it for a long long time. This became apparent a few years ago when I noticed that the inner sides of my front teeth were worn down. I was concerned about it and eventually got a mouth guard to wear at night. Okay, so taken care of, right?

The thing is, it bothers me that I continue to grind my teeth and can't seem to do anything about it. It is like my body is high-jacked while I am sleeping and I don't have any control. I have done some experimentation of my own to see if I can somehow unlearn this habit. 

Before falling asleep I literally command myself not to grind my teeth. I have also written "don't grind your teeth" down on paper and read it over and over again hoping that it would leak into my subconscious, and I have tried to purposely loosen up my jaw before sleeping. And though I can't be sure if any of my magic tricks have had any effect, I am still fairly certain that I grind my teeth.

I am also certain it isn't just me who does this. For one, I have actually heard my boyfriend grinding his teeth (so hard it actually squeaks) and tons of people have admitted to me that they do this 
too.

Ok, so why do we do we grind our teeth?

It seems fairly clear. Stress/Tension. However, even when I am not feeling particularly stressed, I grind my teeth. So, it seems that it is not caused by especially stressful situations but more to a constant state of a low level of stress and tension that I have stored in my jaw. So, how do I get rid of it??

Where do I start? I think (surprise surprise) that yoga provides an excellent method to rid yourself of the stored stress and tension that causes harmful behavior like grinding your teeth and that prevents us from fully relaxing. Yoga encourages us to practice deep relaxation.

Savasana is the perfect pose for releasing stored tension

At the end of almost all yoga classes, teachers announce the last pose, Savasana, or corpse pose, and all of the students sigh with relief. Class is finally over and all they have to do now is get through the next 10 minutes lying on their backs with their eyes closed. In this time they can plan dinner or mull over a problem at work. 

Then the students hear the teacher claim that this is the most difficult asana and he might even say that the entire class was in preparation for this pose. The students consider this for a moment and then either shrug it off as one of the goofy things yoga teachers say or they might even attempt to relax their body and clear their mind of any thoughts.

But, Savasana is an extremely important pose and though it is the easiest to do, it is the most difficult to master according to pretty much any reliable yoga resource available. The reason is that in this pose you are meant to release all tension held in the muscles. This seems like an easy task but most of the time we are completely unaware of the tension we are holding and are thus unable to release it. This is why yoga teachers often instruct students to tense muscles and then release them so that they can recognize the difference.

In addition, maintaining the body free of tension is directly linked to the state of the mind. If our mind is agitated we will see our body reflect this in tiny movements, which prevent us from fully relaxing. Therefore the mind has to be cleared as well for the student to get the full benefits of Savasana. 

Of course, we practice yoga and we are all students, which means that each time you do this pose with the intention of entering into deep relaxation (which by the way does not mean sleeping) we have the opportunity to improve. It is completely normal to have wondering thoughts and to react to these thoughts both mentally and physically, the trick is to practice non-reaction to these thoughts as well as recognize places of held tension and consciously relaxing those muscles.   

Enjoy your next corpse pose! It's not as easy as it seems.